


now i'm covered in you

by SummerChilde



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/F, Hanahaki Disease, Light Angst, Mutual Pining, Requited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:01:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29454225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummerChilde/pseuds/SummerChilde
Summary: The first petals come during a training session. A cherry blossom.Hanahaki AU. The flower you cough up is your crush's favorite. Surgery removes your ability to love.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Yamanaka Ino, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 63





	now i'm covered in you

The first petals come during a training session. Sakura’s sparring with Kakashi when she suddenly doubles over hacking. Something pink and soft tumbles from her mouth. White buds and red anthers follow. Her sensei lets out a concerned yell. 

Hanahaki Disease. Sakura’s read enough medical textbooks to know.

Still, she can’t help but smile wryly when Kakashi, with pitying eyes, places a stem in her palm.

_A cherry blossom. How ironic._

She confesses to Sasuke the very next day. She’s not surprised when Sasuke tells her that he can’t love her. Sakura had sort of resigned herself to losing her childhood crush. She just hadn’t wanted Tsunade to perform the surgery that would remove her ability to feel love until absolutely sure.

However, Sakura _is_ surprised when she doesn’t get immediately worse, doesn’t feel roots tearing at her throat like everyone says you should when rejected.

Not that she doesn’t get worse, mind you.

In a matter of days, Sakura ends up a patient in her former workplace. Slightly hysterical, that same day, she realizes she has no clue who she loves. She’s obviously pretty enchanted if the disease is progressing this fast, but with who?

Ino visits each day. Her best friend tries to persuade her to take the surgery Tsunade offers to perform at least every other day, but Sakura won’t, _can’t_ , until she’s rejected by her mystery person.

 _I don’t want to lose the ability to love_.

Coward, Inner Sakura snarls.

Lying awake in a hospital gown after visiting hours, Sakura can’t sleep. Ashamed, she wonders if she’ll die. _Maybe it’s selfish, but I just want to_ know.

Her condition doesn’t get better.

Soon enough, all of the Rookie 9 are visiting. Sakura is oddly touched when Sasuke tells her that he wishes she loved him still, so he could try and save her.

Even soft-spoken Hinata pleads with her to consider surgery.

Surprisingly, it’s Naruto who makes her figure it out. He, unlike everyone else, hadn’t asked her to take the surgery. They’d both grown up sort of alone – him more so than her because she’d had Ino. Of course, he wouldn’t ask her to give up on love. 

When Naruto visits for the fifth time in one week, Sakura entertains the thought of loving him in a different way. He looks strong and kind, hair golden under sunlight, sitting by her bedside.

But the flowers Hinata had coughed up a mere two months ago had been bright, yellow dandelions. Besides, Sakura knows she thinks of Naruto as a brother.

“We had another mission today. Team 7 isn’t the same without you. Everyone misses you. We were talking about your mystery person just the other day. It’s not Sasuke, but – man! - I sure thought it would be. Remember the day you first declared your love for him?”

Naruto’s rambling, clearly in an effort to make her feel better. It works. _I don't want to die, but I think I could be alright dying like this – surrounded by people who care for me even if none of them love me the way I want to be loved._

Sakura smiles as she remembers her childhood, the Academy student who had given up her first friend for a boy. Then, she stops smiling. Naruto notices.

“Sakura?”

“I do, Naruto.” And remember Sakura does. 

For the first time since her diagnosis, Sakura feels a spark of hope ignite within her. She thinks about Ino, all flaxen hair like Naruto but so much softer, with lips the color of Sakura’s namesake. Ino who had, once upon a time in their Academy days, handed Sakura a cherry blossom because it was her favorite flower. Ino who had been visiting her each day. Ino who had, just yesterday, begged her with tears in her eyes to undergo surgery.

“They’re not worth it, Sakura!” Ino had cried.

 _That’s where you’re wrong, bestie. They’re worth everything_.

Later that day, Naruto leaves her room just as Ino enters, holding a chart. Her vitals don’t look good, Sakura knows. Ino’s sobbing quietly as she looks through page after page of medical informational.

After a while, Ino attempts to crack a joke, but Sakura hears the worry seeping through, hears the worry and affection that had probably always been there. God, how had she been _so blind? Oh, we’re both so silly._

“Sakura petals, really? Only you, Forehead, would fall in love with yourself.”

“I actually thought that at one point, but I know better,” Sakura admits. The words are hard to say because it feels like there’s no air going into her lungs, but Sakura forces them out.

Two weeks ago, Sakura had, for a moment, wondered if the pink petals twisting inside her ribcage meant she would never be loved, was too narcissistic for love. After all, cherry blossoms were her favorite flower, too. She knows better now.

Ino blinks, confused. The chart drops from her hands when Sakura kisses her.

Just to give her time, Sakura leans away before kissing Ino again – eyes closed this time, soft and slow.

This time, Ino kisses back. At her _requited_ crush’s soft “I love you, too,” Sakura’s airway clears. She blinks green eyes open to meet glittering blue ones. Ino falls onto her hospital bed, scolding her while peppering her face with watery kisses.

“Idiot. You should have said something!"

Sakura laughs and lets herself fall into her best friend's embrace.

"Sorry! I didn't know. Are you crying _again_?”

“I’m just so happy!” Ino says when Sakura asks.

Suddenly, they’re both crying – holding hands and laughing, making out and crying – on Sakura’s hospital bed, stopping only when Naruto returns, Hinata in tow, to see them and let out a joyous laugh.

“I love you. I love you. I love you.”

"You already know this, but I love you too."

**Author's Note:**

> From Taylor Swift’s “ivy”:
> 
> "Your opal eyes are all I wish to see.
> 
> Clover blooms in the fields.  
> Spring breaks loose, the time is near.
> 
> Oh, I can't  
> Stop you putting roots in my dreamland.  
> My house of stone, your ivy grows  
> Now I'm covered in you."


End file.
